Talk:Al Kaline

From BR Bullpen

Al Kaline was a teen phenom, at age 19 taking over as regular right fielder for the Tigers in 1954. Then in 1955, he leapt into stardom, winning the batting championship, the youngest champion ever at 20, younger by one day than Ty Cobb. He played on for two decades.

His overall skills of batting for average, power plus his speed and fielding ranked second in the American League for his career, next to Mickey Mantle. He had a wonderful throwing arm, best in the American League combining power and accuracy.

On top of it all, he was a true gentleman. He won the first Roberto Clemente award which honored his fine qualities as a human being.

Later, he long served as a Tiger broadcaster, with another old Tiger hero and batting champ, George Kell.

Kaline used the DH role in his final season to get over the 3000 career hit mark. Overall, the kind of player anyone would be proud of.

Somebody added Al Kaline's name to the list of Cool Names, presumably because if you read it as one word, you get "alkaline". However, as someone who grew up when Kaline was a player, I don't recall any broadcaster ever pointing that out. Baseball fans of the time were not into chemistry . . . - Randy 15:15 23 March 2007 (EDT)